The “journey to paradise” Cabrera said is a true life experience he had on the island that he never had the liberty to go because of his busy career.
But then, thanks to that career, it brought him there.
Until he set foot on the island, Cabrera said he never thought how vital it was for the islands to remain untouched.
“I am pointing this out for us native islanders to realize how essential these islands are for us. We must not let the western world intervene and destroy our clean natural resources,” he said.
Cabrera’s view of the northern island is so vivid that he saw the health of almost every single creature of its terrestrial and marine life.
This showed Cabrera how exactly a “perfectly balanced” eco-system looks like.
The life cycle of planktons, the glowing shells on the beach, unique colors of cliff rocks, lively coconut, pine trees and other vegetation and the abundance of terrestrial wild life, all these, Cabrera said are still “connected” and have not been disrupted.
Farallon De Mendenilla
All the wonders Cabrera saw in Pagan may not be found in Farallon de Medinilla where he believes, the bombings of military exercises have destroyed “delicate marine life over and under water.”
“It is very clear that the military is damaging our environment and doesn’t give a damn about our islands,” he said.
“We don’t have to be a scientist to know about the environment. Just go to Puerto Rico dump site in Saipan and see for yourself how the military has destroyed our lagoon,” he added.
Cabrera urged NMI people to aggressively preserve and protect the environment before marine life is completely depleted that “we can no longer harvest our natural resources.”
“Let’s hope that our natural resources at this time do not contain poisonous chemicals such as mercury and other cancerous materials,” Cabrera said.
Perfect creation
He also believes that the creator of these islands “wants us to make them as pristine and natural as it can be and everlasting.
“We must believe that this creation is incredible and meant for the livelihood of all living plants and animals on the planet,” he said.
People, he said, are custodians of God’s creation.
“We, therefore, shall preserve and protect these delicate and helpless creatures from destruction such as noise, pollutants, chemical spill, etc., so we can continue to have a healthy life while enjoying the beauty and serenity of this island. Then, the journey to paradise will be experienced by the next generation,” he said.
Fish and other marine animals around the islands are the primary sources of clean food, and a healthy livelihood.
Cabrera said people don’t have to have an aquarium just to see these magnificent creatures.
“In this real and natural aquarium, we can see the diversity of marine life from microorganisms to a bigger fishes, like whales,” he said.
Humans coexist with these creatures in the “natural aquarium.”
The island, he said can be an eco-island and can be sustainable if rules and regulations are set to preserve and protect the natural resources that bring the commonwealth its major industry: eco-tourism.
Tranquility
Cabrera and his hosts were stranded in the waters twice as the boat experienced engine trouble.
Luckily, Ben Mettao, one of the few residents on Pagan told him, the carburetor was just dirty and needed cleaning.
Anxious about them just drifting, Cabrera wanted to go back to the island. He asked Mettao, “How do we go back to the island?”
The boat operator told him “we have to paddle back to the island,”
“You are kidding,” he told Mettao, who was not.
Mettao fixed the carburetor but after several minutes of cruising south, the engine broke again, which meant they had to drift again while Mettao got back to the carburetor.
This moment, however scary it was, gave Cabrera the best opportunity to see the entire stretch of the Pagan’s southern beach.
“I looked back to the island and I was amazed to see this beautiful island so majestic, like the entire island floating on the ocean,” he said.
The contrast of the vivid evergreen pine trees, long black sand and the variation of the island formation of the beach, flat lands, rolling hills and the huge volcano puffing smoke at the back side made the island truly the most beautiful paradise on the planet.
“From moment to moment I was overwhelmed with absolute tranquility of the environment. It’s a feeling I never felt in my life. It’s a feeling I found nowhere in the world but here in paradise. I realized now the true meaning of tranquility,” Cabrera said.
Tranquility, he added is an element in the environment that is so vital in life and health, that it becomes a natural treatment from stress.
“Looking at the sky at night totally dark makes the stars look brighter and closer to the earth. I raised my hands as I am touching the stars, feeling that I am part of the universe. I saw several shooting stars so visible and incredible to see.
As I look at the stars I began wondering how Pagan was created. It took me a while to figure out how this paradise was created,” he said.
The process and the complexity of all these creations are beyond our imagination, Cabrera said.
“It is beyond our comprehension how priceless it is to build this island. It took Mother Nature over millions of years to build this island.
“We humans don’t see it this way. The time and the complexity mother nature took to build Pagan,” he said.
